Boomerang Love
by Harri27
Summary: Love is like a boomerang. You get it, shiny and new, hold it for a while, and throw it away. Sooner or later, it comes back and hits you in the face.


A/N: Ahoy there! I'm Harri, the author of this stupendable story! I hope you enjoy it, and please leave a review, whether good or bad! No really, I'm begging you. This is my first story, so don't cry if I make the odd mistake! Mwah!

Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling runs this shit.

It was impossible. She stared at the letter she had just opened and the shiny badge she held in her hands. The words 'Head Girl' were looking up at her. Suddenly, realisation dawned on her face and a squeal of pleasure surpassed her lips. But that left one unanswered question; if I'm Head Girl, then who's Head Boy?

(Two weeks later)

The three girls looked up from their game of exploding snap as the doorbell rang.

"You weren't expecting anyone, were you, Lily?" asked a petite girl as she pushed her dark curls off her face.

"Not that I'm aware of. Mum's not due back from Petunia's until tomorrow evening." Replied the redhead as she got up. She strolled to the front door and a look of surprise usurped her face when she opened it.

"Who is it?" queried the blonde.

Alice and Mary got up and strode to the front door, and immediately beamed at the sight of the four boys who stood on the doorstep, grinning at them.

"Evening Evans, McDonald, Fortescue." The boy with tousled black hair and distinctive grey eyes nodded to each of the girls in turn as he greeted them.

"Hi Sirius." Lily raised her eyebrows at her visitors as she spoke. "How do you know where I live?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" James pushed his hand through his untidy black hair as he spoke, a habit which irritated Lily immensely. He smirked at her obvious annoyance.

"Frank told you, didn't he?" Alice folded her arms. "I knew I shouldn't have told him where we were." She added with a groan. "I'll kill him." The others smiled at this, as they knew that her and Frank were so helplessly in love with each other, that she'd sooner kill herself than intentionally harm Frank.

"That tone suggests you don't want us here Alice, and I can't imagine why that would be?" Remus winked at her. "Besides, that Longbottom is no match for Padfoot and Prongs' persuasive skills." He rolled his eyes as Sirius took a bow and Peter laughed at his friend's extravagant antics.

Mary looked indignant. "We had a quiet evening in planned, that's why. You know, one last girly sleepover before school starts again in two days. "

"And we've planned one last drink at The Three Broomsticks with our favourite three Gryffindor girls." Lily snorted at James' words. "We invited Longbottom but he mentioned a family get together, and you know how scary his mum can be, so we left him. But, he happened to inform us that you three don't have any major plans for tonight, so here we are."

"What makes you think your plans are any more exciting than ours? We have butterbeer here too." Mary gestured towards the bottles she'd brought with her.

"Aha. Thought you'd say that. Prongs, show 'em." Peter passed James the bag he was carrying and James pulled out a bottle of firewhiskey and waved it in the girls' faces. Lily looked around at her best friends, who were both nodding profusely at her, and she sighed.

"Fine, we'll come. But only because I know you won't leave until we say yes."

"Ah, Red, you know us so well." James grinned at the face she pulled.

"Give us ten minutes. You lot can all wait in there." Lily invited them in and showed them to her kitchen. "And don't touch anything!"

The three girls went upstairs to get ready. Mary and Alice took their time, but Lily was much quicker, conscious of the fact she'd left the Marauders unsupervised in her kitchen, and she preferred her house in one piece.

Crack!

Seven teenagers all appeared at the same time in the main street of Hogsmeade, one of the few all-wizarding villages left in Britain. They collectively got their bearings and proceeded in the direction of The Three Broomsticks. It was a warm summer evening and they received a pleasant blast of cool air as they pushed their way into the crowded pub.

"Evening, Rosie." James greeted the young barmaid with a wink.

"Evenin' all." She responded with a smile.

The group made their way over to an empty table in the corner and sat down, ordering butterbeers all round.

"Just think everyone; this is our last Hogwarts summer holiday." Alice reminded them sorrowfully.

"One year left. How I've put up with three prats for so long, I'll never know!" Remus glanced at his fellow Marauder's, daring one of them to rise to the challenge.

"Yeah, I'm sure it was horrible for you." Sirius noted sarcastically. "You would have had so much more fun without me and James."

"Ah yes, who would shave Mrs. Norris or bewitch the suits of armour to pelt dungbombs at Filch?" The nostalgia in his voice was unmistakeable.

"Have you ever actually done that?" Mary asked with a laugh.

"Only once or twice…"

"Or seven or eight times!" Sirius pretended to wipe a tear away from all the happy memories. They carried on chatting and reliving the memories of the past six years together, sipping butterbeer and passing round the firewhiskey, in turn.

Unbeknownst to them, several dark, hooded figures with white, faceless masks were slowly converging in the street outside. They continued their banter, blissfully unaware of the goings-on, until many loud bangs sounded, and half the wall beside them was blown to smithereens. Several people screamed and there was a rush to escape through the doors. The seven Gryffindors were some of the last to leave, due to their table being farthest away from the door. When they managed to force their way outside, looks of horror transformed their faces as they saw the devastation that lay before them.

"Shit." Was how Sirius politely put it.

There were approximately eight 'Death Eaters' (followers of Lord Voldemort, the most feared Dark wizard of all time) and each appeared to have blasted apart the window of eight different establishments. As everyone came rushing out of buildings from all over Hogsmeade, the noise levels were astounding. Separate screams and cries of horror merged to form a cacophony of sound. All of a sudden, the noise died out. Just like that, as if someone had put a silencing charm on the whole village. Everybody seemed frozen in shock. James and Lily, who had somehow ended up slightly in front of the others, glanced over their shoulders at their concerned friend's faces and looked back at each other whispering simultaneously, "wands out."

Without warning, the Death Eaters started shooting hexes at the crowd, and the unnerving silence was broken. Screams filled the air. People gawked at the unfolding scene of braver witches and wizards rushing forward and attempting to duel the Death Eaters, whilst others were disapparating on the spot.

"This way!" James shouted at his friends, pointing them towards the dirt path at the end of the high street that lead through a wood to the Shrieking Shack, which was supposedly one of the most haunted dwellings in Britain. Lily saw where he was pointing and began to run after him without a second's thought, and she believed the others were following her. She soon learned however, that this was not the case. She peeked back over her shoulder and perceived that she was the only one to have heard James, or at least followed him. She yelled at him to stop and he halted, waiting for her to catch up with him.

"Where are the others?" She hissed to James.

"I have no idea, Red. I thought they were following you!" He glared at her, knowing that Lily would inevitably blame him, even though it was in no way his fault. He rolled his eyes at the thought.

"Blatantly not. We have to go back for them!" She spat back bitterly.

"No, we can't. It's too dangerous."

"Exactly! Think of how much danger they could be in!"

"Don't think like that." He muttered sharply. "We have to believe that they'll be okay. Those five, except maybe Wormtail, are the best in our year at Defence against the Dark Arts, bar us. They know what they're doing. Just think of it as a little bit of a practical experience."

"You can't know that though! What if a Death Eater caught them?" She demanded. He stared at her incredulously.

"Don't be ridiculous. What would a Death Eater want with some school kids?"

"Shut up."

"No, I will not. You know I'm-"

Lily cut him off. "No, I mean shut up, I can hear someone coming!" They both peered cautiously down the path, and then James heard it too. The sound of two voices, one male and one female, drifted down the dirt path towards them. James glanced around his surroundings hurriedly, noticing a tree with a trunk wide enough for two people to hide behind without fear of discovery, and gestured to it wordlessly. Lily eyed the tree he was pointing at, and nodded. They tiptoed behind it and waited.

The sound of two cloaks swishing along the floor told James the figures were close, but he didn't dare steal a glance and check, lest he be seen. Why the fuck do I forget the cloak today, of all days? He cursed in his thought for a panic-stricken second that they had somehow been spotted, and observed Lily, who appeared absolutely petrified, as the footsteps and cloak-swishing sounds halted, just on the other side of their chosen hide out. Then, he became aware of the fact that the people were at a standstill, not because their hiding place had been discovered, but because their argument had become rather heated.

"We cannot continue. We must go back. The Dark Lord ordered us to obtain captives as a bargaining tool against the Ministry, and we have failed. We cannot return to the Dark Lord empty handed, he was very clear about that." The male voice spoke.

"There is nothing we can do now. You saw the scene, everyone has fled! They will all have disapparated by now." said the female voice coolly.

Lily and James were staring at each other, wide eyed and fearful as they came to the realisation that the conversation they were eavesdropping on was being held between two Death Eaters.

"We cannot return empty handed. Those are our orders." The first repeated.

"Even if we had just one nasty, little mudblood corpse, that would be better than nothing." The other mused. "I suppose we could go back and see if there were any casualties. I saw one or two pretty little faces lying on the ground, must have been Hogwarts age, seventh years I'd guess. I'll bet their blood isn't pure, considering the scum Dumbledore lets in these days." She sneered as she said this. Lily couldn't help but gasp loudly at this revelation. She prayed with all her might that her friends were okay.

"What was that?" The woman demanded sharply. Lily looked horror stricken as she realised her gasp was louder than anticipated. James firmly clamped a hand over her mouth.

"It sounded like it came from over here…"

Lily's eyes would've popped out of her skull if they'd bulged any more than they did in that moment. James could have found the look on her face amusing if it had been caused by a different set of circumstances. He soon comprehended that their discovery was unavoidable, and held his wand ready to defend himself the second the Death Eaters came into view. Lily noticed and imitated him. They stood back to back, both prepared to defend their side of the tree. Without thinking, James grabbed her hand and gave it a comforting squeeze. As he fathomed that the Death Eaters should have come around the tree already, he peeked around the vast trunk, and saw nothing. Exhaling in relief, he turned back to Lily and sent her a fleeting smile at the feeling of relief that was exploding out of his chest.

"Expelliarmus!" a sudden shout echoed throughout the otherwise silent wood.

James felt his wand fly out of his hand, and saw Lily's do the same. His eyes darted around disbelievingly as he futilely attempted to settle his gaze on their assailant, but to no prevail. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, two figures appeared from around the tree trunk. Lily thought they must have put Disillusionment charms on themselves, which had just lifted. The primary thing James noticed was that the woman, who had a tall, slender figure, held both Lily and James' wands in her left hand, and her own wand in her right. She grinned manically at the man next to her, who was her complete opposite when it came to build. He was short and as stout as a pot-bellied pig. James presumed they were the two Death eaters whom they had been listening to, and his presumptions were, of course, correct.

"Well, well. What have we got here then?" The woman swept her gaze over both James and Lily, giving them both scrutinizing glares. "What are your names?" she barked, making Lily jump, and earning an eye roll off James.

"James Potter." He replied defiantly, holding his head up high and proud, determined to show them that he wasn't afraid.

"Brave one you are." The man muttered. He then continued, in a louder tone. "And you girl?"

"L-Lily Evans." She too held her head up high, but stuttered out of fear. Truly though, she wasn't scared for herself and James, but afraid for her friends, whose whereabouts and conditions were still unknown. She couldn't keep her mind off what the woman had said earlier about there being Hogwarts age bodies on the floor. She tried not to let her mind presume the worst, but of course, it had. James had heard her falter, and he knew her well enough to know that her fear was for neither of them, but for her friends. He gave her hand another squeeze, attempting to provide what little comfort he could to her, since he felt guilty that he was the one who'd lead her up this particular path.

"What do you want from us?" Lily demanded, rather boldly.

"We have the wands; we'll be asking the questions." The woman leered at him. "Now, Potter…where have I heard that name before…?" she trailed off, apparently deep in thought. All of a sudden, her eyes lit up. "Got it! Our darling Minister for Magic happens to be a Potter, unless I am very much mistaken. Any relative of yours?" she asked with a fake sweetness in her voice.

"Nope." He lied.

"Liar!" she sang back at him. "He's your Daddy, isn't it sweetie?"

"That's right." The other Death Eater continued. "There was an article about his family holiday in the Daily Prophet last week. Funny, he has a son called James too."

"Imagine the uses the Dark Lord could have for the Minister of Magic's son!" she sang gleefully. "He'll have inside information on the Ministry, and I'm sure we could loosen his tongue under torture. That, and I imagine the Minister will be willing to bargain once he realises who our captives are."

"Yes, but we were meant to be rounding up mudbloods for the Dark Lord. Potter Junior here is obviously a pure-blood, so the Dark Lord may not have as much use for him."

"But he's the Minister's own son." She repeated, as if her fellow hadn't heard her the first time. As the two Death Eaters squabbled on, they didn't notice their captives talking in hushed whispers a few metres away.

"Red, I don't know if you trust me or not, but today you're going to have to. I have a plan."

"I do trust you." She smiled at him. Two years ago, she never would have thought she'd find herself saying such a thing to James Potter, but over the past year she and her friends had gotten closer to all of the Marauders, and she had learnt that he wasn't quite as insufferable as she'd first thought. Still an arrogant bastard of course, but he was actually quite a lot of fun to be around, and he could be serious when he needed to.

"You're not going to like my plan though." He warned her, still speaking in hushed tones as the Death Eaters continued to quarrel. "I need you to do exactly as I say. Soon, I'm going to do something that'll get both our wands off her. The thing that I'm going to do will most likely surprise you, but don't delay. Grab our wands as soon as she drops them and run. Don't run back towards the village, it'll be the way they expect you to go and if they pursue you, which they shouldn't as long as my plan works, you'll just be putting the villagers in danger again, and I think they've had enough of that for one night. Stick to the dirt path, it's quite easy to follow really, and it'll lead you to the Shrieking Shack. Wait for me there. If I don't return in 20 minutes, come and find me but don't stray off the path. If I'm nowhere along the path then go down to the village and get help. Do you understand me? Will you do as I say?"

She glared at him, obviously angry that he wouldn't let her stay and help him, but agreed that it was a good plan if it worked, and she nodded her assent. "But how the hell are you going to be able to take out two Death Eaters without a wand?"

"You'll see." He winked at her, nodded, and signalled the start of his plan. Lily looked on, wondering how he was going to pull it off.

She struggled for breath and didn't believe what her eyes were telling her brain had just happened. James' form had shimmered, and in the blink of an eye James had turned into a stag. And it was no normal stag. It was huge, magnificent even, with pure white fur and enormous antlers, and it moved with a grace and beauty so astounding she thought her heart had stopped. The stag glanced at her, and she noticed it had James' hazel eyes. Then, it charged. She had never seen anything move so fast. Lily realised what James' plan had been as the stag bounded, antlers down, at the two Death Eaters. They screamed and scattered, running in different directions. The stag ran at the female Death Eater and hit the arm she was holding Lily and James' wands in. She screamed at the pain and shot a hex at the Stag, but it dodged and sped away, into the forest. She chased after it, screaming with rage. Lily noticed she had dropped their wands and she ran over and grabbed them both. She followed the dirt path that James had pointed her onto previously, and arrived at the Shrieking Shack.

She was reluctant to enter it, due to the local warnings of how haunted it was, but it was what James had told her to do and she'd seen no reason not to trust him so far. She gave in and went in there and waited. It was shockingly clean inside, considering its grimy exterior. Somebody must have been there in the past few months, for the furniture only had a thin layer of dust, not the inch-thick cover that came from years of neglect. She sat down on a pin stripe sofa, conjured a small fire made of transportable, bright blue flames and waited for James, glancing at her watch.

After 15 minutes of waiting impatiently, she heard a noise outside. She rushed to see what the disturbance was, and gasped as James staggered into view. She sprinted forward.

"What's wrong?" she gasped.

"A curse, it hit me in the shoulder." he managed to gasp. She ran forward and examined it. There was blood spurting out from a gaping hole in his left shoulder.

"We need to get you to a healer." She said firmly.

"No, I can't. They'd ask how I got it and nobody can know. About me, I mean."

"You mean about you being an illegal animagus? Yeah, we need to talk about that. But not now, you're losing too much blood!"

"No healers." He said firmly. "You could do it?" he asked, looking at her hopefully.

"I could, but I'd need all my potions equipment, and I don't have it here." She said sceptically.

"Can we go to yours then? It's empty there, right?"

"Yeah…I suppose. But it would make more sense to go to yours, your mother or house elves could look at it?"

"My mother is the worst person at Potions, like ever. Please, you do it," he whined, flashing her his adorable puppy-dog eyes.

"Fine," she snapped, "but you're not well enough to apparate on your own, you've lost too much blood. I'll have to take you with side-along apparition." And with that she grabbed his hand and turned on the spot. When she opened her eyes, they were standing in her front garden, a few feet away from her front door. She put her arm around his waist and supported him all the way to her living room sofa, where he collapsed and lay on his front.

"Take your shirt off." She ordered.

"Red, control your desires, now's not the time." he mumbled into cushions. She rolled her eyes. Only James would make jokes at a time like this.

"Shut up, I need to have a good look at the wound to decide what potion to use." She didn't wait for his reply, she just tore his shirt off, which was quite a remarkable feat considering the awkward position he was lying in.

"Scorgify," she muttered, pointing her wand at the wound. This siphoned off most of the blood around it. She winced, seeing that the curse had burned through his skin and several layers of flesh. She didn't doubt that if it had gone much deeper, she would have been staring at bone.

"Right, I've got to go upstairs, my cauldron and all my ingredients are up there. Shout if you need me. And don't move. I won't be long; luckily this potion won't need much brewing time." And with that, she stalked off upstairs. James could hear noises upstairs, but he didn't dwell on them. The pain in his shoulder was becoming unbearable. He closed his eyes for just a second…

"James. James, wake up. James you fainted, I need you to wake up. James, can you hear me?"

He moaned a little, and squeezed one eye open, peeking at her.

"Oh, thank Merlin." She breathed a sigh of relief as he woke. "Okay, there are two potions. I'm going to pour one on the wound, and it will burn a bit but it should seal it up nicely. Just so you have some warning." She poured the potion from the cup she was holding in her left hand over the wound, a thick bright pink potion slowly dribbled out of it, and as it came into contact with his skin, the skin smoked and hissed. It was coming out too slowly, she decided, so she turned the cup upside down and the entire potion poured at once. He yelped loudly.

"Fuck, Red. A bit? That burns more than a bloody bit!" She ignored him, and watched the potion do its job. When the hissing stopped and most of the smoke cleared, she peered down at his shoulder. The wound had healed completely and the only evidence it left was a pink tinge on the skin, but she knew that would fade in a few days. Next, she reached for the other potion and held it out to him as he sat up, and she collapsed with exhaustion onto the sofa next to him.

"Drink this." She ordered him.

"What is it?" he asked feebly.

"It'll help with the pain."

"Oh, thanks." He gratefully accepted it off her and downed it quickly. He felt the effect immediately. The pain in his shoulder subsided until it was gone completely, and most of the fuzziness in his faded. "Damn, that stuff's good."

"Well, I am the best in the year at Potions for a reason." She grinned at him. "Actually, it's pretty much the only subject I beat you in. Except Charms."

"Jealous?" he winked at her. Lily thought he must be feeling better.

"You wish," she shot back at him, sticking her tongue out.

"Don't need to." He smiled gently. Then he looked sombre again. "Seriously though Red, thank you. I don't know what I'd have done without you."

"You're welcome. But you need to rest, so don't move for a few hours. You lost a lot of blood."

"Keeping me under house arrest are you?" He waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

"Oh shut up!" She laughed.

There was an awkward pause following this, until Lily broke the silence.

"So...you're an illegal, unregistered animagus. That's interesting," she observed. "Is it to control Remus every month?"

"What do you mean?" He said sharply.

"Oh, don't give me that James. I know about Remus, or should I say 'Moony'?" She put heavy emphasis on the last word.

"But...how could you...we didn't..." He spluttered, gaping at her like a goldfish, his mouth dropping open comically.

"Oh, don't insult my intelligence. I figured it out in third year. How every time he got ill, or visited an ill relative, happened to coincide with the full moon."

"I can't believe you-" he stopped talking when she held a hand up. She wasn't finished.

"I also noticed that you and the other two happened to go on your little night time wandering whenever he was away, and how it just so happened that when he got back, the three of you always had a few fresh cuts or scrapes. I guessed you were sneaking out to go with him, but I always wondered how three school children could handle a werewolf..."

"And now you know." He finished for her.

"So the other two, Sirius and Peter? Are they animagi too?" He nodded. "So what are they?"

"Padfoot's a dog, and Wormtail's a rat."

"What use is a rat against a werewolf?" She was completely bemused. "And where does he go? How did you do it, become animagi, I mean? Does anybody know?"

He sighed. He realised he might as well tell her the whole story. "I'll start from the beginning. We figured it out in second year; me, Padfoot and Wormtail. Astronomy was his favourite subject, so he never missed a lesson except when he was 'away,' and the only lessons he ever missed were when the full moon was out. So we put two and two together. That, and in the lessons he always missed there were these really cool wolf howls that came from near the forest, and when we brought them up he'd look weird, remember something he had to do urgently and rush off."

"Okay," she listened carefully, nodding along. "So where did he go?"

"When we told him we'd figured it out, he spilled. He told us he went to the Shrieking Shack, it's not really haunted, the only reason the villagers thought it was is because they heard Moony there every month. He told us there was a tunnel that lead there from the Hogwarts grounds, and it was at the base of the Whomping Willow. It was planted there our first year, just to cover the tunnel. It's dead easy to get into, you just press the knot on the trunk and it temporarily freezes."

She was hanging onto his every word. "So how did you do it?"

"Do what?"

"Become animagi." She reminded him impatiently.

"Oh, right. We went to the library (for pretty much the first and last time) got out a load of books, and we read all about it. For weeks, and weeks, and weeks. Then, when it was ingrained into our brains, we got to work. Took us 'til fifth year, but we pulled it off." He grinned proudly.

"So why didn't you register yourselves and make it legal?"

"Don't you think the Ministry would wonder why three sixteen-year-old wizards had worked so desperately to become animagi? Nah, too many questions. Nobody knows as it is, expect the four of us, and now you."

"Oh, I feel so honoured." She commented sarcastically. He smiled at her. He leaned forward until his breath tickled her ear.

"Don't tell anyone though."

She turned to face him, and to her surprise he was still leaning in. Their lips were inches apart, and Lily could almost feel the electricity crackling in the air around them. She had no idea why, or what possessed her to do so, but she closed the gap between their lips and brushed hers against his, very gently. He was surprised for a moment, then he smiled against her lips and kissed her back. Hard. His lips forced hers open, and they were surprisingly easy to manipulate. Her tongue brushed against his, and he felt as though someone was pulsing fire through it.

She was thoroughly enjoying this kiss, which she was shocked at. She'd kissed him purely because it had felt like the right thing to do, like one of those moments in the movies when you just knew what was going to happen. She'd kissed him on a whim, and she didn't expect to enjoy it that much. It felt incredible. Kissing James was unlike kissing anyone else she'd ever kissed before; it was better. She'd never even had feelings for James though, and that was what she most found odd. In fact, she had hated him up until sixth year. So why the hell did kissing him feel so incredible? There was a monster in her chest trying to escape, and she willingly gave in. She pulled him down until she was lying on her back on the sofa, and he was on top of her, pressing his body against hers.

They carried on like this for several minutes, until she had to break the kiss to gasp for air. When she did, he got off her and sat up, and she followed suit. He had a grin on his face that was so wide it almost touched each of his ears. She smirked at his expression, blushed furiously, and her rosy cheeks matched the exact tone of her fiery red hair. They sat there, panting and trying to catch their breaths. There was another pregnant gap when neither had anything to say to the other.

James looked around awkwardly; looking for something they could talk about and ward off the stale silence with, when he spotted her Head Girl badge on the coffee table in front of them.

"So, Head Girl eh? That's great, congratulations." He gestured toward the badge he'd spotted.

She replied rapidly, taking advantage of the break in the silence. "Oh yes, I'm so excited! But the only thing is, the Head Girl has to work closely with the Head Boy, and nobody I've asked knows who he is! He's usually a prefect but I've asked all the others and none of them know, so I have no idea. Do you?"

"You're looking at him."

The look on Lily's face was one of pure shock.

"You?! Dumbledore's gone mad. He's crazy. It's simple. You've broken more school rules than anybody else in Hogwarts' history. Why the hell would he make you Head Boy?" she spluttered.

"I've been asking myself the same question for two weeks." He said bashfully, genuinely embarrassed at the secret he'd kept from everyone except the Marauders, who found it very amusing.

They carried on their awkward conversation, prattling about anything and everything other than the breath-taking kiss they had just shared. They discussed the Marauders' past pranks and Lily was flabbergasted at some of the stunts they'd pulled over the years.

An hour later, neither had brought up the kiss and both were acting as if it hadn't happened.

"So there was this one time; Sirius asked McGonagall what hairballs tasted like, when-"

"Bloody hell!" Mary shouted as she burst through the front door, with the others in tow. "Where the hell have you two been? We lost you in Hogsmeade hours ago and we haven't seen you since!"

"We…umm…" Lily faltered, unsure of how much of the truth she should tell them. James, however, lied easily through his teeth.

"We headed to the Shrieking Shack to wait it out, but on the way there Lily tripped and hit her head pretty badly, and I wanted to take her to St Mungo's, but she insisted on coming here and making herself a potion, so we did. I've just been keeping an eye on her, making sure she's alright, you know? I've just decided that she probably isn't at risk of a concussion anymore, so we were about to come and find you!" Lily flashed him a grateful smile; she wasn't the best at lying. "So, there you go."

"Fair enough." Sirius sighed. He had been hoping that his best friend would have a thrilling tale to tell about the two of them fighting off multiple Death Eaters at once, or something equally as exciting along those lines. He couldn't help but feel disappointed.

He didn't realise quite how close to the truth he'd been.

Lily sat in the prefects' compartment, waiting.

She'd already put her trunk and owl in the compartment she always shared with her friends, had a brief catch up with a few people, and when 11.30 had come around, she'd made her way down to the prefects' compartment at the end of the first carriage. Here, the head students were meant to get together and discuss issues such as the patrol timetable, the Halloween feast, the Christmas ball and other things they were in charge of. Then, at 1 o'clock, the prefects would turn up for a briefing and introduction to their new duties.

Whilst she waited, Lily thought about the past two days. When the others had left hers the other night she'd gone straight to bed. She had woken up the next morning with a feeling of dread, and remembered the events of the night before...

As I walked around the house, blitzing it from top to bottom to remove any evidence of our 'gathering' (the others left mine well after midnight and not particularly sober) I thought about the strange feeling that had settled itself in my stomach since James and I shared that passionate kiss. I'd never had feelings like those before, and I couldn't work out for the life of me what they meant. Logically, they mean I like James. Literally, that is impossible. I can't like James.I hated him from the moment I met him until the moment our friends became friends. And even last year, we still always argued. In fact, we were the only two people of our group who ever clashed. Sure, we all had our little quarrels, but nobody argued like James and I did. If a week went by when all hell hadn't broken loose, everyone thought one of us were ill. Though I suppose we eventually sorted out our differences, through many apologies and plenty of nagging from our friends. But still, feeling like this about James is very wrong. Very wrong indeed. The Marauders are the most popular boys in school, they're the ones everybody is envious of. Like James Potter would ever go out with me? Dream on Lily. As if.

Lily checked her watch impatiently. It was 11.35. Typical, she thought. He's late again.

She was just about to get up and go searching for him, when the door to the compartment banged open and the boy with the messy black hair and the gorgeous, hazel eyes swaggered in. He turned around, shut the door, locked it, and drew the blinds, before strolling over and settling himself down on the tattered seat opposite her.

"Hi." He grinned sheepishly at her.

"Hey. Nice of you to finally join me."

"Sorry, but Sirius spotted an opportunity that was too damn good to miss."

"Oh yeah?"

"Well, Fabien Prewett's hair has grown quite a lot over the summer…"

"So?"

"So, it looks even worse than it did before."

"Okay?"

"We were doing him a favour really."

"I'm sure." She commented, dryly. "What exactly did you do?"

"We dyed it bright pink."

"You dyed it pink? You dyed all of Fabien Prewett's precious hair bright pink?"

He nodded, smirking proudly. The younger of the Prewett brothers was known to be very vain when it came to his hair. Lily giggled slightly. However, this kind of thing was supposed to be frowned upon by the Head Girl, so she felt some discipline was in order.

"As hilarious as his face surely was, I'm afraid you're Head Boy now, so you have to give this up. You can't be Head Boy and get away with all your marauding."

"Ah, but that's what makes me so unique, right Red? If anybody can manage both, it's me." He winked at her. Her heart thumped against her rib cage forcefully. Was this his attempt at flirting?

"Unique's one word for it, sure." She snorted. Damn, why does everything I say come out more sarcastic than I mean it to?

James' eyebrows furrowed together, as if he were deep in thought, then his face softened and he spoke with a more serious tone, addressing the topic neither had so far dared bring up.

"Lily, about what happened the other day…" She immediately knew what he was referring to of course; it had been on her mind constantly since it had happened.

"Yeah?" She asked tentatively, her heart still racing. "What about it?"

"Well, I think we both know that it was a mistake. It should never have happened." What?! "If you regret it anywhere near as much as I do, then you should understand." Regret it? He can't be serious. I fucking loved it. "So I think it would be best if we both just forgot it ever happened. Is that okay?"

No, no, no. Definitely not okay. "Okay." Damn it. He didn't notice the conflict that was eating up her insides.

"Good." He breathed a sigh of intense relief. "So, now that's out of the way, down to business. What do we need to talk about, again?"

They did their head duties like the model students they were supposed to be, and temporarily forgot about that particular conversation. They both spoke in light, joking tones but acted awkwardly towards each other. They didn't realise they were thinking very similar thoughts.

Oh my God. He doesn't like me. He probably thinks I'm just like one of those pathetic third years drooling all over him whenever he walks past. Well I'll show him. Lily thought defiantly. I'll prove I can get over James Potter. When I'm done, he'll never suspect my true feelings. Ever.

Oh my God. She doesn't like me. I only said those stupid things to see how she'd react, whether she liked me back or not. Yeah, they were harsh, but anger's still passion, right? Oh fuck it all, who am I kidding? I must have been too obvious; she blatantly realised that I still love her, Merlin's pants I've always loved her. She must think I'm a drooling idiot. Well, I'll show her. James thought stubbornly. I'll prove I can get over Lily Evans. When I'm done, she'll never suspect my true feelings. Ever.

If only they knew.

The rest of the train journey passed without consequence, except when James and Sirius threw a bag full of Fanged Frisbees into a compartment full of second and third year Slytherins, and Lily and Remus were forced to clear up the mess. James and Lily had returned to their own compartments after the meeting and tried, but failed, to mentally drive each other out of their own brains.

At 5 o'clock, Lily had got peckish so she, Alice and Mary had decided to go and find the lunch trolley in the front of the train to buy a couple of pumpkin pasties. They were walking past a compartment full of shrieks and howls of laughter, and Lily was about to go in and tell them to turn it down, when she saw who was in the compartment. There were some Ravenclaw sixth year girls flirting with the Marauders. When Lily's eyes found those hazel ones she'd been avoiding all day, her heart leapt into her mouth. He glanced at her, caught her eye then purposely, without breaking contact with those perfect green ones, leant over and whispered something flirtatiously in one of the girl's ears, who giggled, flipped her hair and gazed adoringly at him. That'll show her I'm not a love-struck idiot! Lily's heart dropped from her mouth down to her stripy, fluffy socks and she looked away, feeling the tell-tale prickling at the back of her eyes, forcing the tears not to come. He knows I like him, and he's making sure I know he'd never go out with me in a million years. So sure, I know why he's doing it. But knowing why he's doing it doesn't make it any less painful.

Without a moment's notice, the whole train was plunged into a despairing darkness, and screams rang out through the air.

**B/N: (You likely just lost your beta note virginity ;] ) So if you hadn't gathered from my introduction I'm not Harri *gasp* Its ' .7' here. Feel free to go check out my story "Raspberry Kisses" if it actually ever makes it to . But yeah, I've introduced myself, why don't you head on over to the review section and leave us a review telling us what you thought about the story :) I look forward to seeing you next chapter :) She hasn't planned an update schedule yet but you won't wait too long for the next chapter, it's practically writing itself. Because I'm such a shocking Beta you'll have to wait for me to check it's perfect for you lovely people but check within the next month and there should definitely be another brilliantly flubbergusting chapter here for you to read. Keep in touch ;)**

**Much Love.x**


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